Roskam overstated cost-per-job

There can be many opinions about what kind of stimulus package is needed to jump-start the economy. But there is no room for repeating a false argument in a debate after experts have demonstrated its underlying error. I was deeply saddened that Rep. Peter Roskam did just that in the Daily Herald Guest View, Jan. 29. To justify his opposition to the stimulus package being debated in Congress, Roskam asserts "the cost would be $235,000 per job created." He knows, or should know, that this is false.

In The New York Times, Jan. 26, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman called a similar assertion bogus because "it involves taking the cost of a plan that will extend over several years, creating millions of jobs each year, and dividing it by the jobs created in just one of those years." The true cost per job, according to Krugman, will be closer to $100,000, and the net cost will be as little as $60,000 once you take into account the fact that a stronger economy means higher tax receipts.

I hope that Roskam either points out the error in Krugman's analysis or apologizes.

Frank Goetz

Wheaton